new-found respect

"Though nature has given sensibility to pain to such living organisms as have the power of movement, – in order thereby to preserve the members which in this movement are liable to diminish and be destroyed, – the living organisms which have no power of movement do not have to encounter opposing objects, and plants consequently do not need to have a sensibility to pain, and so it comes about that if you break them they do not feel anguish in their members as do the animals." - Leonardo da Vinci

simply put, it's an explanation of why plants do not feel pain as opposed to animals. and only today did i find out that leonardo da vinci, one of the greatest painters and a highly talented sculptor, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, botanist and writer, was a vegetarian.

first things first, what is a vegetarian? according to veggie advisor:

a vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat, fish, poultry, or any slaughterhouse by-product such as gelatine.

a vegan is someone who does not eat meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, eggs, honey, or any other animal product.

a pescetarian is someone who abstains from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of fish.

a flexitarian is someone who eats mostly a vegetarian diet, with occasional meat consumption.

so, it turns out there's a term to describe people with weird diets like me. lols. frankly speaking, i am in awe of vegetarians, and even more so of vegans. i wish i had the determination to at least 'upgrade' from pescetarianism to vegetarianism. but i find it hard to give up my salmon sashimi! T_T

nevertheless, i guess any reduction in meat intake is better than none at all. boo.

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